Newsbriefs

Condo Help Goes High-Tech

Florida condominium owners now have a new way to obtain help. A new website has been started to assist owners to learn their rights and responsibilities.

The new site even provides a way for owners to file complaints against a condo board or to ask questions about their rights as owners. The development of the new website has come on the heels of rising complaints to state agencies and others involved in the growing Florida condominium real estate industry.

The new website may be found at www.myflcondo.org

Florida State Condo Ombudsman Virgil Rizzo started the site. His office was established last year by the state legislature to assist in disputes between condo owners and boards. A series of new laws affecting the control of condominium associations are expected to be developed by the new office.

Three Florida title insurance companies are the latest to settle class action lawsuits with borrowers who allege they were overcharged for title insurance when they refinanced their homes. Florida has the third highest cost of title insurance in the Nation.

Lawyers Title Insurance Corp., America Pioneer Title, which renamed itself to Ticor Title Insurance Company of Florida and Fidelity National Title Insurance Corp. settled the cases with customers.

Florida law requires title insurers to charge a discounted premium when a property is refinanced, but owners still have to repay high refinance closing costs to obtain a better interest rate or take cash out of their property.

The three insurers agreed to pay settlements ranging from $824,536 to $1.4-million.

The size of conventional mortgages increased on New Year's Day. The two largest insurers of home mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac raised the size on the limit of mortgages they will buy by 16 percent to $417,000 increasing the pool of buyers who will qualify for the lower cost financing.

The increase is the largest made by the two companies in at least 25 years. It will provide many more borrowers with lower interest rates than in the jumbo lending market, which has loans that come with higher interest rates.

Homebuyers who qualify for conforming loans typically pay one-quarter to one-half percent less on interest rates than jumbo loans. On a straight $417,000 mortgage for instance, it would result in a monthly savings of $67.41 a month on a 6 percent interest rate versus 6.25 percent. In a news release, Fannie Mae said that the increase will allow as many as an additional 466,326 homeowners to qualify for a conforming loan.